Avoiding identical common names for different species

[upupa-epops]

@ItsMeLucy

If someone from the peninsula comes, they ought to be able to type x’takay or xtakay and see what they know as that.

Following my logic in the discussion quoted below, my suggestion is that this common name should apply to the family Tyrannidae (or more precisely to Tyranninae if iNat accepted subfamilies) rather than to the miscellaneous tyrannids that the name is used for.

I see that in the Yucatan those are the only 3 tyrannids that visually mimic each other, but I imagine if other Myiodynastes, Conopias, Myiozetetes, or Philohydor species were to show up there then they would be called the same name? Is that name also used for the Tyrannus kingbirds or do they have a different name?

If kingbirds, “xtakayes”, and small flycatchers all have different names in Maya then you could do something like the Spanish name for the family (Mosqueritos, papamoscas, tiranos y parientes). Each of the names in the list should come up when you search, and then a family-level ID would be applied which sounds like a suitable level to place the ID since the name refers to species in multiple genera.

@jasonhernandez74

@gheaton

there are two different species with the common name “Pulque agave” and I’m probably going to remove one of them for causing mass confusion

But if both of them are, in fact, commonly called pulque agave, removing the name from one of them will only cause misidentifications – people see only one option for “pulque agave,” they know the plant they are looking at is called “pulque agave,” so that’s the option they choose.

@upupa-epops

@gheaton

I disagree - this is the equivalent of making the default name for both coast live oak and Engelman oak just “oak”. In a similar case several agave sp used to have the default name “century plant” and yes, people call them that, but it’s extremely counterproductive to have multiple with that identical name because people are just going to click one thinking it’s the other.

This is one of the official guidelines listed right beside the text box on the common name entry page:

• Don’t add duplicate names, e.g. don’t name numerous hawks “hawk”

Yes, “hawk” is a common name used for Buteo jamaicensis. But that’s not because it’s the specific common name of Buteo jamaicensis but because it’s a generic common name that applies to many members of Accipitridae. Presumably those plant names should be applied at genus (or an intermediate level) instead.